Opposite effects of RWA and SDO on war support: Chinese public opinion toward Russia's war in Ukraine

Previous research has identified the combined effects of Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) on individuals' militant attitudes. Much of the existing studies have been conducted in the United States and Europe, where political cleavage is drawn between liber...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of social psychology 2024-04, Vol.63 (2), p.839-856
Main Authors: Hsu, Han‐Yu, Wang, Tao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitude
Authoritarianism
Case studies
China
Cleavage
Conservatism
Dominance
Humans
Ideology
Liberalism
Measures
Politics
Public Opinion
Right wing politics
right‐wing authoritarianism
Russia
Social Dominance
social dominance orientation
Socialism
socialist regime
Traditionalism
Ukraine
War
war support
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Summary:Previous research has identified the combined effects of Right‐Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) on individuals' militant attitudes. Much of the existing studies have been conducted in the United States and Europe, where political cleavage is drawn between liberalism and conservatism and where RWA and SDO are aligned with conservatism. In this article, we argue that in a different ideological backdrop where RWA and SDO are not bound by conservative ideology, their influence on war support varies. We use the case study of China, in which socialist ideology upholds authoritarianism but opposes social dominance. We hypothesize that in a war in which the state acquiesces, regime loyalists high on RWA and low on SDO tend to back the war, while regime critics low on RWA and high on SDO are less supportive. Using longitudinal data with a nationwide online sample (Time 1: N = 1000, Time 2: N = 500) collected during the war in Ukraine, we confirmed the opposite effects of RWA (measured by the traditionalism subscale) and SDO (measured by the dominance subscale) on war support. The findings extend our understanding of the impacts of authoritarianism and social dominance in a context beyond the United States and Europe.
ISSN:0144-6665
2044-8309
DOI:10.1111/bjso.12706